German Verb Types

 

Regular Verbs   ♦   Modal Verbs   ♦   Auxiliary Verbs   ♦   Irregular Verbs   ♦  Separable Verbs   ♦   Reflexive Verbs

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Regular Verbs

 

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Have a look at the list above to familiarize yourself with 40 common regular verbs. Pay attention to the similarities between the Present Tense and the Präteritum – conjugation is easy, right? Read on to find out how we form the Present, Präteritum and Perfekt forms of German regular verbs.

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Conjugating Regular Verbs: Present Tense

 

The present tense is used when talking about something happening right now (I am going to the shop – Ich gehe zum Laden), something that happens regularly (I drink water every day – Ich trinke Wasser jeden Tag), and sometimes to denote the future (I will tell you later – Ich sage es dir später) .

Regular verbs are quite simple to conjugate; all that is required is the verb stem and the appropriate ending depending on the person doing the action.

The verb stem is the infinitive of the verb (the “full” verb, usually ending in ‘en’ – arbeiten, glauben, meinen, kaufen, etc.) minus the “en” ending (arbeit, glaub, mein, kauf, etc.). The conjugation endings are then applied as seen below in blue:

 

 

*Note: When there is no vowel between the stem of a verb that ends in “d” or “t” (such as “arbeit“)  and the conjugation ending (arbeit + t = arbeitt), we usually add an “e” to make the word easier to pronounce (arbeit + e + t = arbeitet).

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Conjugating Regular Verbs: Präteritum (simple past)

 

The Präteritum, or “simple past” tense, is used when talking about things that have happened in the past (within a specific time frame) and are already definitely over (As a child, I played football – Als Kind spielte ich Fußball). This is the reason why the simple past is often employed in written narratives such as stories or historical accounts. Speakers of German very rarely use this tense in conversation, as it sounds quite formal. Instead they prefer to use the Perfekt, or “past perfect” tense, but we will get to that in the next section.

Since we are still dealing with regular verbs, the conjugation here is also quite simple. Again, all we need is the verb stem and the appropriate ending depending on the person doing the action.

Have a look at the table below to see how the Präteritum conjugation endings differ from the Present Tense endings:

 

 

*Note: Don’t forget we are still adding the “e” in situations where the stem ends in either a “t” or a d”. This extra “e” is placed between the stem and the conjugation ending (arbeit + e + test = arbeitetest). We do not need to do this if the stem ends in any other letter because there are no great pronunciation difficulties in these situations (kauf + test = kauftest).

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Conjugating Regular Verbs: Perfekt (past perfect)

 

The Perfekt, or “past perfect” tense, is used when talking about things that have happened in the past, but may not necessarily be completely finished within the given time frame (i.e. you have cooked twice this week, but you may cook again before the week is over). Despite this, German speakers overwhelmingly rely on the Perfekt in conversation, and would rarely use the Präteritum in speech. A simple rule of thumb would be to speak about the past using the Perfekt, and to write about the past using the Präteritum.

When it comes to conjugating verbs in the Perfekt, there is an added complexity that closely resembles the English structure: we add the verb “haben” (to have). “Haben” is an Auxiliary Verb, which we will analyze in more detail later. For now, you need to be able to conjugate the verb “haben” in order to use the formula for the Perfekt tense:

Conjugated form of “haben” + “ge” + stem + “t” 

 

Have a look at the table below to learn how to conjugate the verb “haben” and how to apply the formula:

 

 

*Note: We are still adding the “e” between the stem and the conjugation ending in cases where the stem ends in either “d” or “t” (hat + ge + arbeit + e + t = hat gearbeitet).

 

Modal Verbs

 

 

Have a look at the list above to learn the 6 German modal verbs. Modal verbs are verbs that usually cannot stand alone; they need at least one more verb in the sentence in order for the sentence to have meaning (e.g. “I must” makes no sense on its own, it needs another verb – “I must study”). “Mögen” and “wollen” are slight exceptions as they can take an object instead of a second verb (e.g. “I like chocolate” or “I want chocolate”), but overall they act just like regular modal verbs. All 6 modal verbs are highly irregular, and therefore require some attention.

 

Read on to find out how we form the Present, Präteritum and Perfekt forms of German modal verbs.

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Conjugating Modal Verbs: Present Tense

 

As we saw in the section about Regular Verbs, the present tense is used when speaking about something that is happening right now (I must wash the dishes – Ich muss das Geschirr spülen), something that happens regularly (I should feed the dog every morning – Ich soll den Hund jeden Morgen füttern), or something that will happen in the future (I am allowed to go to Spain next year – Ich darf nächstes Jahr nach Spanien fahren).

You can see from the examples that the modal verb takes second position in the sentence, as is normal, but it also pushes the second verb to the very end of the clause. The second verb is NOT conjugated, it is left in the infinitive form.

Have a look at the table below to see how modal verbs are conjugated in the present tense:

 

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Conjugating Modal Verbs: Präteritum (simple past)

 

The Präteritum, as you know by now, is the way that the simple past tense is usually written in German. German speakers will almost always use the Perfekt (past perfect) form in conversation. Modal verbs, however, are an exception; when using modal verbs in speech, they will almost always use the Präteritum form (I couldn’t open the door – Ich konnte die Tür nicht öffnen).

Just like in the Present Tense, the modal verb is conjugated and takes second position in the clause, while the second verb remains in the infinitive and goes to the very end.

The conjugation of modal verbs in the Präteritum follows the same logic as with the regular verbs: verb stem + appropriate ending. The difference here is that the stem also loses the umlaut (können –> konn, dürfen –> durf). Watch out for “mögen”!

 

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Conjugating Modal Verbs: Perfekt (past perfect)

 

It is not common to hear Germans using the Perfekt form of the past when using modal verbs, but it is helpful to understand that this tense exists and that it is formed according to the usual formula. This form is only used when the modal verb is the only verb in the sentence (which is quite rare) – e.g. I was allowed – Ich habe es gedurft.

If there is no verb apart from the modal verb in the sentence, you can use the normal “haben” + “ge” + “stem” + “t” method as shown below. This will be quite rare, as most sentences involving modal verbs will contain more than one verb.

 

 

Double Infinitive Method

 

The double infinitive method of forming the Perfekt with modal verbs is used when there is more than one verb in the sentence (which will happen most of the time). To form the Perfekt, you must conjugate “haben” as normal and move the infinitive forms of the rest of the verbs to the end of the clause. The modal infinitive will always come last. It works like this:

 

Ich habe trinken wollen.

Sie hat singen können.

 

However, in conversational German it is much more common to hear the Präteritum form of modal verbs being used:

 

Ich wollte trinken.

Sie konnte singen.

 

Auxiliary Verbs

 

Auxiliary verbs are “helper verbs” that we use in order to help us construct certain tenses and convey certain meaning. Keep reading to find out how to conjugate these verbs and how to use them in a sentence.

 

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Conjugating Auxiliary Verbs: Present Tense

 

Auxiliary verbs are highly irregular, which means that there are no solid rules when it comes to conjugation. As there are only 3, they are not too difficult to memorize. In the Present Tense, they can help us in the following ways:

• “Haben” (to have) is used to form the Perfekt past tense when the verb in question is not a verb of movement (I believe – Ich glaube. I believed – Ich habe geglaubt).

• “Sein” (to be) is used instead of “haben” to form the Perfekt past tense when the verb in question is a verb of movement (I fly – Ich fliege BUT I flew – Ich bin geflogen) – this will be explained further in the Irregular Verbs section.

• “Werden” (to become) is used to form the future tense as an alternative to using the Present Tense (I read – Ich lese. I will read – Ich werde lesen). “Werden” is conjugated according to the person doing the action and takes second position, while the second verb is left in the infinitive form and moved to the end of the clause (He will go to France – Er wird nach Frankreich fahren).

 

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Conjugating Auxiliary Verbs: Präteritum (simple past)

 

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Conjugating Auxiliary Verbs: Perfekt (past perfect)

 

 

 

Irregular Verbs

 

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Conjugating Irregular Verbs: Present Tense

 

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Conjugating Irregular Verbs: Präteritum (simple past)

 

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Conjugating Irregular Verbs: Perfekt (past perfect)

 

 

Separable Verbs

 

Separable verbs are verbs that take a prefix. This prefix alters the original meaning of the root verb much the same way as English prepositions can change the meaning of ordinary verbs to form phrasal verbs (e.g to stand by, to stand in, etc.).

German is quite a flexible language in this regard, which means that there are a vast amount of combinations that can be constructed using all the possible prefixes and root verbs. Just look at what can be done to the verb “kommen”:

 

kommen = to come

ankommen = to arrive

mitkommen = to come with / accompany

weiterkommen = to progress

hereinkommen = to come in / enter

herauskommen = to come out / emerge

nachkommen = to keep up

zurückkommen = to come back

 

Below, you can find a list of prefixes that separate from the root verb to form separable verbs, and a list of prefixes that do not separate from the root verb, but do still have an effect on its meaning. Separable verbs have a unique grammatical structure, particularly in the Perfekt tense, so pay close attention to conjugation.

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Separable Prefixes

 

Separable prefixes (shown in the table below) are prefixes that detach from the root verb in the following way:

 

Verb: zurückkommen – to come back

 

Present Tense:

Ich komme jetzt zurück. – I’m coming back now.

[conjugate the root verb “kommen” and send the prefix to the end of the clause].

 

Präteritum:

Ich kam gestern zurück. – I came back yesterday.

[conjugate the root verb “kommen” and send the prefix to the end of the clause].

 

Perfekt:

Ich bin gestern zurückgekommen. – I came back yesterday.

[conjugate either “haben” or “sein (depending on verb type), send the separable verb in its infinitive form to the end of the clause and insert the “ge” between the prefix and the root verb].

 

Modal Verb: 

Ich muss nächste Woche zurückkommen. – I must come back next week.

[conjugate the modal verb (here it’s “müssen”), and send the separable verb in its infinitive form to the end of the clause].

 

Using the “werden” Future Tense:

Ich werde nächste Woche zurückkommen. – I will come back next week.

[conjugate “werden”, and send the separable verb in its infinitive form to the end of the clause].

 

Using a “zu-” Construction:

Ich habe mich entschieden, morgen zurückzukommen. – I have decided to come back tomorrow.

[The first clause (before the comma) introduces the “zu” construction, and the separable verb in its infinitive form goes to the end of the second clause. The “zu” is inserted between the prefix and the root verb].

 

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Inseparable Prefixes

 

Inseparable prefixes are prefixes that do not detach from the root verb under ANY circumstances. These verbs are usually irregular, which means that each conjugation needs to be memorized just like with normal irregular verbs.

For a reminder of how irregular verbs work, and for a list of common ones, scroll back up to our Irregular Verbs section. Can you find any inseparable prefixes in that list?

Below are the prefixes that are always inseparable:

Prefix	General Meaning	Example Verb	English
be	turns action towards object	beantworten	to answer a question
ent / emp	beginning of action or separation	entgehen	to escape / avoid
er	stress on outcome or accomplishment	erkennen	to recognize
ge	result, successful action	gewinnen	to win / gain
miss	same as English usage	missbrauchen	to abuse
ver	verb action has gone wrong (usually)	verschlafen	to oversleep
zer	apart	zerstören	to destroy

 

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Dual Prefixes

 

There are a small number of prefixes that, depending on the main verb, can either create a separable verb or an inseparable verb. Have a look at the table below to see some examples:

Prefix	Inseparable Verb	English	Separable Verb	English
durch	durchleben	to experience	durchfallen	to fail (exam)
über	übersetzen	to translate	überkochen	to boil over
um	umarmen	to hug	umsteigen	to change (bus, train, etc.)
unter	unterschreiben	to sign (name)	untergehen	to sink, go under
wider	widersprechen	to contradict	widerspiegeln	to reflect

 

 

Reflexive Verbs

 

 

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Reflexive Verbs with Accusative Pronouns

 

 

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Reflexive Verbs with Dative Pronouns

 

 

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